MEDFORD, MA (November 7, 2026) -- The No. 20 Tufts University women's volleyball team's run in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Tournament ended on Saturday afternoon at Cousens Gym, as the Jumbos dropped a five-set quarterfinal decision to sixth-seed Bowdoin College by scores of 14-25, 25-23, 16-25, 25-23 and 15-13. The loss snapped Tufts' five-match winning streak and left the Jumbos at 18-8 on the year. The Polar Bears improved to 16-9.

The Jumbos won most of the statistical categories in front of a crowd of 163, but the match came down to a handful of points. Tufts outhit Bowdoin .225 to .178, led in kills (63-54), assists (61-52), digs (68-65) and blocks (8.0-6.0). The Polar Bears made up the difference at the service line, where they had nine aces to Tufts' six. The teams were tied 17 times with six lead changes over two hours and five minutes, and the final three sets were decided by two points apiece.

Tufts opened with its best set of the match, hitting .419 (15 kills, two errors) while holding Bowdoin to .121. The teams were tied at 7-7 before the Jumbos took over. After a Bowdoin service error, Hazel Nelson, Celina Savage, Emma Heckman and Nelson again put down kills, all set by Ellery Clark, and a Tamara Gisiger attack error made it 13-7. That was a six-point run that included a Bowdoin timeout at 11-7.

The Polar Bears cut it to 13-9, but Tufts responded with four straight points, getting kills from Claire Castor, Savage and Maiwenn Kamdje and an attack error from Haley Campau to lead 17-9 and force another Bowdoin timeout. Tessa Fergusson's kill made it 24-13, and a Kelsey Kim attack error ended the set at 25-14. Savage had four kills on seven swings, and Castor and Kamdje each added three.

Bowdoin evened the match in a tight second set. The Polar Bears used four straight points to turn an 8-8 tie into a 12-8 lead, with Alison Smith putting away a kill and Cameron Shelly serving an ace. Tufts called timeout and rallied behind Fergusson, who had back-to-back kills as the Jumbos scored four in a row to get within 14-13. Bowdoin answered with four of its own to lead 18-14, and then 22-19 after a Tufts timeout.

The Jumbos refused to go away, scoring four straight points with Fergusson serving. Savage put down two kills, Heckman and Nelson combined to block Zoe Ryu, and a Campau attack error gave Tufts a 23-22 lead. Ryu tied it with a kill and Bowdoin then blocked a Heckman attack to go ahead 24-23. Ryu closed it out with a kill for a 25-23 Bowdoin win, even though Tufts had hit just .152 on the set.

Tufts bounced back in the third set. Bowdoin led 6-4 on a Smith kill, but the Jumbos scored the next six points. Castor had back-to-back kills to tie it at 6-6, Dylan Whisenant served consecutive aces for a 8-6 lead, and a Fergusson kill made it 9-6 and drew a Bowdoin timeout. Tufts built the margin to 17-12 on blocks by Savage and Nelson and by Nelson and Kamdje, and Bowdoin used another timeout to slow the run.

Tufts led 22-14 and closed the third set on a Fergusson-Savage block of Hannah Woolley and a Fergusson kill for a 25-16 win. Castor hit .556 in the set with six kills and Savage added four, as Tufts hit .242 to Bowdoin's .129.

The fourth set belonged to Smith, who had 10 kills on 13 swings with no errors (.769) as Bowdoin hit .323. The Polar Bears jumped out to a 7-1 lead with Ryu serving an ace and Smith adding two kills, prompting a Tufts timeout. The Jumbos chipped away, getting back to 13-14 with a five-point run that included kills from Castor and Heckman and a block by Fergusson, and later pulled within 23-24 on Castor's kill after Whisenant's ace. Ryu ended it with a kill for a 25-23 Bowdoin win and forced a fifth set.

The decisive set was tied five times, with Tufts leading 8-7 on a Savage kill, but the Polar Bears scored five of the next six points to go up 13-9. Kamdje answered with kills at 10-13 and 11-13, Amanda Freehill added an ace at 12-13, and another Kamdje kill made it 13-14. Kim's kill from the right side ended the match at 15-13 for Bowdoin.

Castor led Tufts with a double-double, totaling 16 kills and 14 digs while hitting .300 on 40 swings, and handled 26 serve receptions without an error for a team-best 16.5 points. Savage added 15 kills on 37 swings (.297) to finish with 16.0 points, and she handled 12 receptions with one error. Kamdje had 13 kills and 13.5 points, and Fergusson posted 12.5 points on nine kills, two solo blocks and three block assists.

Nelson chipped in five kills and three block assists for 6.5 points, and Heckman had five kills and two block assists for 6.0. Rianna Liu directed the offense with 30 assists and 11 digs, and Clark had 22 assists. Whisenant posted 12 digs and three aces, and Freehill had 13 digs, three aces and 14 receptions.

Smith led Bowdoin with 20 kills while hitting .395 on 38 swings, while Ryu added 15 kills, four aces and three block assists for 20.5 points, with 34 receptions and seven digs. Shelly ran the Polar Bear offense with 35 assists, 16 digs, six kills and three aces. Libero Anna Yeh had 18 digs, 26 receptions and 11 assists, and Kim had 25 receptions, 10 digs, three kills and an ace. Woolley added four kills, an ace and three blocks for 7.0 points. Bowdoin advances to face top seed Colby College the NESCAC semifinals on November 13 in Watertown. 

Tufts will have a little under two weeks off before competing in the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid, and will find out where and when Monday, November 16 at 11 a.m. with the NCAA Selection Show on NCAA.com. 

--JUMBOS--